The pungent odour emanating from the Autopia conference isn't burning rubber or benzine. It's nostalgia. The whiff of a bygone era. A longing for a once vibrant local manufacturing industry that's as quiet now as the foreign-built cars that replaced our own. It's the musky scent of tribalism, of an era when designers took risks creating cars with enough character to instil fierce brand loyalty.

As an icy southerly gale tore across the northern end of the Domain, a small crowd gathered on the Tarpeian Lawn yesterday to hear about plans for a massive new public artwork celebrating Australia's First Peoples.

Reg Mombassa's art has allowed him to stand up to bullies and tackle issues from climate change to refugee rights and from religion to nuclear reactors. Don't bully and Be kind are his only commandments,